in message news: snipped-for-privacy@GrumpyvilleNOT.com...
No You can thank Bush I and Clinton for the two biggest tax raises in history for balancing the budget. You can also thank the 4 tax raises Reagan passed after he saw what a disaster his Tax cut was for the deficit.
He shoots, he scores. Great fact I was unaware of.
Alex Magdaleno wrote:
JP/Maryland Studebaker On the Net
One missing factor here: a little event called the collapse of Soviet Untion was brought about by The Teflon Don (Ron Reagan). The resultant "Peace Dividend" slashed military spending under the Klinton regime.....
Go ahead and ask me why I coudn't get a commission in the USAF.
There are no "easy answers" to complicated situations. I didn't drive my Studebaker yesterday, but I did on Wednesday.
by "Alex Magdaleno" Sep 28, 2006 at 09:56 PM
in message news: snipped-for-privacy@GrumpyvilleNOT.com...
No You can thank Bush I and Clinton for the two biggest tax raises in history
for balancing the budget. You can also thank the 4 tax raises Reagan passed after he saw what a disaster his Tax cut was for the deficit.
You're right, of course, there are no easy answers. whether or not you liked either Reagan or Clinton I think you have to agree that the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent de-escalation of the Cold War was a good thing for the US. Likewise, even though it affected you personally, the reduced military spending and balanced budget also gave benefit to the US. I don't forsee any benefits that I'm going to see within the next 20 years (or even longer term for that matter) as a result of W's policies... all I see is debt.
I think Clinton and Reagan were both men who, whether you agreed with them or not, had the best interests of the US at heart, they just had very different philosophies. Thus it was possible to disagree with them without necessarily disapproving. I don't know what the hell W is thinking.
nate
markshere2 wrote:
Speaking of "smooth" rides, what ever happened to the HD mid fifties rear springs that SASCO is supposedly reproducing?
I just filed a belated 2005 FIT and am getting an unexpected $2K refund!
JT
John Poulos wrote:
I'm still waiting to. The previous supplier won't do them in that small a volume, and the others want crazy money. Maybe SI will source them from China at some point.
Grumpy AuC> Speaking of "smooth" rides, what ever happened to the HD mid fifties
What fact? One swing vote on the Democrat side and Alex wouldn't have posted this?
49% of the Democrat vote was for it, 51% was against it... even back then they waffled on the subject.Lee
Not to change the subject but the OT topic was, is our economy really going to hell? The answers to THAT question is obviously NO, for anyone willing to do a search on the subject. If you do you will find the facts are that the current state of the economy is the highest it has ever been in our history, based on GNP. The income to the treasury is the highest in our history, even though everybody we given a tax rate cut to spur the economy after 9/11. Unemployment is at the lowest in history. The number of successful small business continues to grow. More people own their home than at any time in history, and the US is still by far the largest manufacturing.county in the world.
The biggest problem facing our economy is there is an ever growing shortage of qualified people to do the work that currently is available in the US, and it is aggravated by the growing number of boomers that are retiring. Labor Department figures show there are only three qualified people available to for every five job openings in the US! Employers are happy it they can just find somebody who will come to work on time, stay the shift and in trainable.
Although we currently are operating with a budget defect the county has historically operated with a deficit during wartime. When FDR was asked about the horrendous deficits during WWII his reply was; 'One does not worry about the water bill when the house in on fire.' We have plenty of time after our county is safe again to make up any deficit.
mike hunt
If this is a war, why don't we have a draft. We've lowered the published standards to the level of people you wouldn't let into your house, and the unofficial (end of month) standards (which have existed since the end of the depression) even lower. I'm 67 years old, blind in one eye with glaucoma in both and a trouble-maker to boot! If I were ex-army instead of navy, I bet they could find a spot for me if I offered my sevices.
Karl
Mike Hunter wrote:
Give the war a few more years and they'll take you. The Army Reserve age limit was raised from 35 to 40 in March 2005, then to 42 in Jan 2006.
snipped-for-privacy@earthl> If this is a war, why don't we have a draft.
John, you hit the problem right there. I have always voted for centerists as they are the ones who keep some sanity in DC.
Be it Rush or Pacifica, it's the radicals who have screwed up this nation, but even then it was for the good-old American profit ideal, not the good of the nation, that they spewed their illocical faux hatred.
Karl
Kevin may have come off a little fierce about being tied to the fortunes of one company, but it's true. Union factory hands may have been history's best-kept peasantry, but today's techies are the world's highest-paid migrant workers. If you want to survive in business, don't get too attached to your house or land.
I can't believe a rail-car builder could be short of work with a continent-wide shortage of coal and grain carriers. Bombardier is a separate issue, with their long bet on passenger service (anyone notice they've changed the name of their snowmobiles, to prepare that division for sale?). But anyone who can build freight cars should be working overtime. This sounds like a management issue: how much do they lose on each unit they sell? It's pretty cheap to heat 27 acres in Tennessee, and in China it's not even an issue. Plus, you get a thousand year tax write-off for building, and lose the union and the benefits package.
I had a couple drinks with a Nebraska rancher in August who said Wyoming ought to be a mile-deep hole in the ground by now, based on the number of coal trains passing his pasturage. Along Lincoln Highway, it's 5 minutes between trains--in the 70's I used to see high-speed container freights from the coast; now it's nothing but Wyoming coal (or, as Ohio power-plant engineers call it, "dirt.")
It is not any president's job to regulate the economy. A vibrant trade will transcend the worst meddling; a sick market cannot be propped up by any intervention. Other than our thorough-going, Left and Right addiction to praying to Government to cure all ills and cushion all shocks, the biggest obstacle to even-handed policy is not so much the 4-year presidential term, but the constant two-year battle for Congress. And I don't see where popular election of Senators has benefited the republic.
The draft was ended a long time ago. Today military is all volunteer.
mike hunt
Yep, I notice now when when one guy does not toe the party line on every vote, he's threatened by his party. Any idea, even a good one, is "bad" if the other side suggested it. Congress has turned into a 2 vote system, them and us and it sucks.
snipped-for-privacy@earthl>> Actually, I saw the vote as the good old days when both sides voted
a little digging finds the FOLLOWING.. I am NOT the author, but I DO KNOW in MY particular area, WATER is getting dammed hard to find thats drinkable, and HOUSES are NOT selling AT ALL..
jobs? all you want, at $8 an hour, part time.. OR LESS..
Read also: Huge Gold Action and Earth Shaking Change Imminent
Recent stock headlines include a collapsed India stock market, collapsed not just dropping. Collapsed Middle East stock markets on the order of 50%. Dropping European markets, and US markets. Very weak Japanese stocks, probably looking to crash like the Middle East and India markets because the Nikkei is/was up 50% in a year. Very weak Chinese stocks, rapidly weakening ?emerging? markets because of a slowing commodities bull. Weak Russian markets. ? In short, the whole world is just about to fall into a synchronized stock cascade. Here is a typical headline, one of many these last weeks: European sell-off continues after U.S., Asia falls Autos, miners among decliners following steep Wall Street fall LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European markets dropped sharply Wednesday morning, extending the week's losses and taking their cue from a steep fall in the U.S. on the back of rising oil prices and falling consumer confidence. I offered a theory in World Speculation Dominoes that the world financial markets are all synchronized and will crash together. It appears that we are very near such an event right now. The causes I have written several articles with ?stock crash alert? in the title this year. One of the major impetuses was the imminent unwinding of the Japanese Yen carry trade. In that ten year old free money spree, Japan allowed financiers world wide to borrow Yen for a literally zero interest rate and then invest that money in world stock markets and to buy other nations bonds for about a
3% interest rate premium. The amount of borrowed Yen invested in the world?s financial markets is astounding. We are talking trillions of dollars value in Yen that has found its way into every major financial market in the world. The US is considering a pause in its interest rate hikes of late. The interest rate differential the US holds over Japan and Europe is as much as 3%. If that differential is not maintained, trillions of dollars of US denominated financial investments are going to be unloaded on the world markets. A combination of unwinding the Yen carry trade and a serious drop in the value of the USD will just simply pull the rug out from under every major financial market that has benefited from the cheap USD and Yen. Liquidity is being pulled from world markets as we speak. It could get really ugly in a very short time friends. There are substantial reasons for major stock collapses due to very large macro economic trends affecting both the Yen and the USD. This is made worse by the bubble nature of world stock markets as of the last year, where many Asian markets saw gains over 50%, such as the Nikkei and Korean markets. They are/ were in stock manias. And then add the literal collapse of the Middle Eastern markets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait?.and India. Then add emerging market weakness, and the fact that the Nikkei and the US stock markets are also definitely tipping down as we speak, and there is definitely a little panic in the winds. To say the least. I?m going to go out on a small limb and say we are looking right now at a gigantic world stock collapse. I don?t like writing this, I get no fun out of writing gloomy financial analyses. It is still possible that these world market drops will be forestalled, but the end is nearing now for a world financial mania that started in Japan in the early 1990?s with their ridiculous zero interest rates. As a matter of fact, the whole financial mania we are about to see collapse began in Japan in the 1980?s when they created their own stock and real estate bubbles that collapsed in the early 1990?s. Then the US had its financial and real estate bubbles in the late 1990?s and early 2000?s. Just as late as last year, the financial manias took hold in India, the Middle East and Korean and even emerging markets?.and are now crashing as we speak. Now the flagship markets of the US and Japan are shuddering. The final gasp of a world financial mania is appearing before our eyes right now. The big story out now is the appearance of world stock collapses that may get out of control. I have been writing about this for months already for my readers. The other big story is an impending energy war in the Middle East. Look at your stock portfolio right now. Imagine how you would feel if it dropped 50%. That has happened this year in the Middle Eastern markets. Something like this has happened in India as well just recently. It?s so bad in the Middle East that the Saudi Royal Family has offered to guarantee middle income people ($144k a year there) with guaranteed stock purchases for several years if they will go back into their stock markets. How about that one? As a matter of fact, I am only giving a brief rehash of the quite recent stock collapses. The number of nations involved is many. Trust me, go look for that kind of news, you will find a lot of it recently. There are two major forces that are propelling gold upward. One is fear of financial market collapses that are appearing like burned popcorn everywhere. The other is an imminent energy war in the Middle East. Iran is the pretext. It does not help that their leader is a maniacal Iranian mystic/politician that believes he is ushering in the end of ?history? ? his own words. So, we have a huge overhang over the world financial markets with the unwinding of the Yen carry trade. The over blown real estate markets that are now collapsing just like everyone feared world wide. The imminent dropping of the USD that is making world central banks very afraid that a lower USD will pull more liquidity out of the speculative bubble world stock markets. And fear of an energy war in the Middle East with Russia and China and Iran on one side, Israel right in the middle, and the US and its few allies on the other side. No wonder gold is up about 200 bucks this year, and is having no problem holding onto its 650$ range. I?m sure gold is going to go well over 700 quite soon now. Read my article about ?Huge Action and Earth Shaking Change Imminent?. Now there is talk among central bankers that they are in crisis mode. The ECB and BOJ have both made comments like that, the BOJ much more gentle, but just as concerned. The ECB and friends are talking of crisis mode operations and financial crisis war games as we speak. They are concerned about the implications of a dropping USD and the liquidity that will pull out of world financial markets. The list goes on. Russia, emerging now from its decade old financial collapse following ?perestroika? is now joining a growing list of energy producers who are creating oil bourses denominated in anything but USD. The Proposed Ruble bourse is the latest. This is just one snippet, to be added to Iran?s Euro Oil bourse, and all the coordinated oil / resource nations now collaborating with hostility to the Western Economies. A new world financial order is just now emerging and it looks very much, very much like the pre 1930?s. Oh, did I mention that we are seeing the highest insider selling of stocks since about 2000?? I think this delineation of financial market bad news could be ten pages. I?m just hitting some of the more recent high points. So perhaps some of you with gains in stocks should take some money off the table and put it where it is safe. OF course that is the big question of the day isn?t it? What, with the usual safe haven of good sovereign bonds being very questionable. Besides the imminent decline of the USD and that affecting the yield of USD bonds, Japan will have some trouble maintaining their bond quality if they tip into deflation again. And of course who else has bonds people want? Not many. There has been a lot of discussion about the Euro becoming the next alternative to the USD. Problem is there aren?t enough of them to do the job. There are probably over 100 trillion US dollars out there now working as the de-facto world currency. The number and penetration of Euros is less that one tenth of that. It is going to be interesting to see what happens should there be a simultaneous precipitous drop in world stock markets of the order of 50%. I wonder if the USD is going to survive that. The last time there was a great world depression the USD was a flight to safety. This time, it could be just the opposite. There are two big stories out now. One, and the biggest, is the impending energy war in the Middle East. The other is an emerging world stock collapse. The Prudent Squirrel Newsletter is a big picture gold and economic commentary. Stop by and have a look. (This week?s issue was very short because I was ill this last week.) Christopher Laird Editor-in-ChiefFrom: "The Daily Reckoning" To: snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net Subject: The Daily Reckoning - Flu Bug Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:50:00 -0400 X-ELNK-Info: spv=0; X-ELNK-AV: 0 X-ELNK-Info: sbv=0; sbrc=.0; sbf ; sbw 0;
A Daily Reckoning Investment Alert
The whole housing market is catching...
THE DENVER FLU
"It is just a blood bath, a path of devastation," says a Denver Realtor. "It is just ugly."
Home prices down 15-17% from a couple of years ago...foreclosures up
63%...and the "flu" is spreading to Naples, Miami, Orange County, Boston...everywhere.Boston Blues... "It's unbelievable," a Realtor told The Boston Globe. These are "very large drops."
Tears in Florida... "One lady broke down in tears," says a Florida Realtor. "Her husband bought two investment properties, and they are going to lose their life savings."
Minneapolis/St. Paul... "15 houses per buyer. If we had buyers."
Dear Concerned Homeowner,
It's here. For years, we've all heard about the housing bubble and how it could pop. Well, the wait is over. POP!
POP! POP! POP!
The worst real estate bust in American history has begun.
Don't take my word for it. Just ask the people who are in the best position to know, like the Realtors quoted above. They see a drop in prices like you wouldn't believe...
But wait until you hear the lenders - the people who made the bubble possible...
Lenders see a 10-20% tumble in home prices
Yes, you heard right: A 10-20% loss nationwide, according to a poll of American mortgage lenders. And much bigger losses in the hottest markets.
How big? In the last housing bust about 15 years ago, prices in the hot Pacific and New England markets tumbled 25-30%. And that bubble was nothing compared with this one.
Two out of every three lenders told the pollster there IS a bubble. It's real. A spokesman for the polling firm said, "In the minds of lenders, the housing bubble has moved from 'Loch Ness Monster' myth status to an economic reality..."
It gets worse. Due to changes in the mortgage lending market, the housing bust won't be confined to a few hot markets this time. It will affect every single one of us.
In fact, you'll discover in the next few minutes that we're headed into a devastating recession.
5 out of 10 lenders say the bust is hereThis is an amazing admission, coming from the heart of the real estate industry. It's as if the makers of aspartame were saying, "Forget it, you're never going to lose weight. And by the way, our product causes cancer."
What's more, the mortgage lenders have lots of company. The activity index of the National Association of Home Builders is at a three-year low. And the National Association of REALTORS now predicts sales will drop this year.
Remember, these are paid hacks for the housing industry. The real situation is two or three times as bad as they admit.
Defaults rock the lenders
Over the last few years, a lot of people paid for their homes with interest-only or adjustable-rate mortgages, called IOMs or ARMs.
Now those mortgages are resetting at higher interest rates. Families can see their monthly payment go up 40 or 50%. The result is a huge, huge wave of defaults now hitting banks like a tsunami.
My name is Dan Amoss, and my newsletter and weekly e-mail service
- Strategic Investment - predicted the ARM disaster two years ago. At the time, everyone else was saying real estate is a "can't lose" proposition.
The newsletter said, "Half of all buyers in those 'hot markets' are buying houses they can't afford...When interest rates spike up, their monthly payments are going to soar."
My readers reaped enormous gains if they did exactly what was advised. They protected themselves with the investments recommended:
As I write this, the average position in the portfolio is up
39.3%. Individual picks are up 144%...124%...79%...113%...67%...And these are just open positions. In 2004, our closed positions sported a gain of 49.5%, and in 2003, our average gain was just a whisker below 70% - to be precise, it was 69.96%.
If you'd followed our strategy, you'd be up 300% in the last four years.
That was then, and this is now. What steps do you need to take today? I explain how to protect yourself and profit in a FREE Special Report called Housing Leads the Way Into Recession: 5 Ways to Protect Yourself.
I beg you to send for your free copy so you don't get clobbered by the worst real estate market in American history.
Folks are losing their homes in record numbers. It's not just a personal problem when 10 or 15 million homeowners have negative equity or can't meet their payments. It will take down the world's biggest lenders. We're staring at a financial collapse.
--Shiva--
"Volunteer" for military nowadays can mean, "I can be bribed." ( Hmmm. Likely candidates for Congress when they get out? )
Karl
also currently means you CANNOT get out when your term is up..LOL
--Shiva--
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